Picked up this historical fiction by Jimmy Carter because of my interest in the Revolutionary War. Carter focuses on the happenings in the American South, particularly Georgia (not surprisingly, as we all know he hails from there). In spite of the incredibly stilted speech between characters, I stuck with this one because Carter includes a lot of background information of actual events and I have less knowledge of the American Revolution events in the South compared to, say, Boston or Philadelphia. But it was a slog to read -- as much as I admire Jimmy Carter the person and his earnestness -- and now am in search of actual non-fiction works to learn more. ( )

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12549019

I wanted to like this book-I have liked Carter's non-fiction-but I could not finish this. It seemed like Carter had a story to tell, but I could not invest myself in the characters, in fact they had very little personality. All of the characters except one spoke like history professors, even the Indians. It all seemed very clinical, maybe especially the parts about sex. The back story was heavy handed...although asuredly exactly correct. I did not care for this book, but I am anxiously awaiting Diana Gabaldon's upcoming book on the same subject. ( )

Carter manages a mass of characters who struggle to survive the revolutionary war. From wives hoping to be reunited with husbands, to Quakes and other pacifists trying to keep peace at all cost, to those who "just want to be left alone" and Torries loyal to the crown and tarred and feather for their belief (and latter return the favor 100 times over). And of course Indians playing the game best they can in hopes of one day returning to the ways of the ancestors.

This audio book was "interesting." I really enjoyed Jimmy Carter's non-fiction work, so this lead me to try out his one fiction writing.

This piece of historical fiction is attempted to be written like his non-fiction pieces, sort of in a memories mode. This is odd for fiction, as it is trying to get decades worth of fictional information into a story only several hours long. Also unlike most fiction works, there is not real central character, the story jumps back and forth, and its likely readable as such in print form, but much more hard to follow in audio only.

Also this story, like many fiction writings of the 21st century, has far too many unnecessary sexual sense written in it. Add to that image, the idea that this is written not only by an old white man, but one who used to be the POTUS. ITs just weird.

But the story was interesting and worth following, and like all good historical fiction made me want to learn more about the facts behind it, to determine how much was history and how much was fiction. Often I felt more like I was hearing a civil war story than a revolutionary store, with a frequent thought that for an Georgian in his 70s the Civil War is still not far enough that we can talk about it candidly, but then again I'm reminded that if Washington would have lost, our Revolutionary war may well have been referred to as the British Civil War. ( )

This book starts out pretty well but then descends into a muddle of too many characters and dry military facts. ( )